I am so confused about the shoes. If it was to remove branding why not just... paint out the stripes rather than crudely replace it? Surely just recolouring would have been fine? Also is there a hashtag for this? #shoegate #morrishoe ?

But why did they photoshop it, and not say, crop the feet out of the image if it was an issue? And what was wrong with his shoes in the first place? And why make such a poor effort to photoshop them on the bloody front page of the prime minister's official website?

Shortly after the shoes began going viral on Twitter with the hashtag #shoegate, the prime minister's website was hastily edited to remove the offending shoes.

On Wednesday morning the prime minister blamed his department for the bad 'shop job.

Message to my Department (PM&amp;C): I didn’t ask for the shoeshine, but if you must Photoshop, please focus on the hair (lack thereof), not the feet! 😀
Here they are in all their glory - my footwear of choice whenever I can get out of a suit.

BuzzFeed News sought comment from the prime minister's office. The office told Nine that the image was "doctored" by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet without the permission of Morrison or his office, and that the PM "likes his own shoes".